🐈
» Forums » Clients » Re: Scam-artist freelancers
Page options
faithfj
Community Member

Scam-artist freelancers

This has happened a couple of times in the past and I stopped hiring anyone from upwork since I wouldn't get any real and appropriate support from upwork. I recently came back and on Feb, 28th, 2018 I hired a freelancer to make an explainer video with my specifications. After I hired him, both of us spend a good 2 hours writing a scene by scene very detailed description of what needs to be shown for a total of only 6 scenes. Then he disappeared. He was supposed to send me a rough cut a couple of days later which was a Friday and he didn't. Instead, he said that he is working very had on it and he promises that he will finish it on Sunday (the deadline). I asked if he can finish it Sunday morning, so we can have all day to work on revisions and he said "NO PROBLEM". Sunday morning came and he had nothing. He used a familiar b.s. that good work takes time and I should be more flexible. He said give me 4 hours and again I said ok. Four hours later, he said he is not ready and how important it is to me that the video is done by today?!!! I said since today is the deadline, before I give you any more time, I have to see what you have so far. He said me wait another 30 mins for rendering and I did. 

 

To my horror, he sent a 10 second (out of 60) clip that has NOTHING to do with the very detailed script we worked on. It was so far off that I was shocked. I started asking questions about scene one, scene 2, ... and bringing up specifically what him and I discussed. He finally confessed that he just started working on it Sunday morning (same day) and he had been busy with another contract up to now. I specifically had asked him before hiring him if he had any contracts and he said NO he is done. So he lied over and over again. When I voiced my displeasure, he ended the contract and blocked me! 

 

Up work allows this to happen all the time. I see upwork responsible for this kind of scam. I didn't find this guy off of internet myself, I found him on upwork and because of the reputation of upwork and trust in them, I hired this guy. He was not paid yet, my money is in escrow but HE WASTED 6 DAYS and I have a deadline tomorrow and absolutely devastated.  

16 REPLIES 16
bobafett999
Community Member


@Faith J wrote:

 

Up work allows this to happen all the time (what happened between you two has nothing to do with Upwork). I see upwork responsible for this kind of scam (how?). I didn't find this guy off of internet myself, I found him on upwork and because of the reputation of upwork and trust in them, I hired this guy (First of all Upwok is a market place.  They are sort of matchmakers - they don't gurantee that the date will go well). He was not paid yet, my money is in escrow but HE WASTED 6 DAYS and I have a deadline tomorrow and absolutely devastated.  (Well since you did not pay him, he was not scamming you.) 


 He ended the contract, leave an honest feedback.  Perhaps next time you should plan to give ample time in your assignments.

 

But I do feel bad that it did not work out.


@Faith J wrote:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**


 Well well well.  If you were talking with the same mouth with your freelancer no wonder he ended the contract and blocked you.  He must have spotted trouble ahead.

Community Hillarious Guru! stop responding because you are no adding anything. I'm here for real discussion. 


@Faith J wrote:

Community Hillarious Guru! stop responding because you are no adding anything. I'm here for real discussion. 


Now it seems you're not. Upwork is not for enveryone. You're wasting your time here with us.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

Rene K

What? Why do you think that is? you think I'm here because I made up a story since is so much fun to start a discussion here? If you are not adding any positive feedback to solve the problem may I ask why are you here? is it a heckling session? Is that your job to turn this into a completely different discussion that it was NOT meant to be? 

gerrys
Community Member

UpWork, with its pomp and circumstance (re: "verification", etc), gives the impression this is a "safe" place.

 

There is no such thing; it's caveat emptor.

faithfj
Community Member

Thank you Gerry S

gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Faith, what an infuriating predicament for you!

 

Out of curiosity, what led you to hire this FL? Did he have an exceptionally strong UW work history, with many completed contracts and lots of specific, positive client feedback? Did he impress you with a knowledgeable and thoughtful proposal message? Does he have items in his portfolio that are exactly the kind of thing you were looking for on this project? Especially given your previous unhappy experiences hiring on Upwork, I'm interested in what led you to the contract.

versailles
Community Member

Faith, this was a cr*ppy experience indeed. It doesn't reflect the whole Upwork experience, far from it, but it may happen.

 

It may happen on Upwork. It may happen on another platform or with the guy who runs a company down the street.

 

Upwork actually provides a means of taking care of this kind of unprofessional freelancers. When you close the contract, you are asked to leave a honest feedback. The feedback is comprised of a public and a private feedback. 

 

If no money was exchanged, only the private feedback will be taken into account, but it weights a lot against the freelancer's JSS. I would even have paid him few bucks, so the public feedback displays shines on his profile.

 

A freelancer whose JSS goes down may find themselves out of business real quick.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

Rene K, 

 

You are ABSOLUTELY WRONG. This very well reflects the upwork experience. I've been on upwork for years and saw so many of these behaviors being allowed by upwork that I left and was inactive for a couple of years. I don't know what experience you have on upwork other than being a "GURU" but I've been a member here since BEFORE you and I have seen many things that could have been preventable only if people knew there would be consequences for their irresponsible behavior or they would lose privileges for scamming others. 

 

A freelancer should not be able to do this to so many people that eventually the bad experiences catch up to him and his ratings go down. There should be immediate suspension for a length of time and or penalty for various amounts depending on what they've done. 

 

TRUST ME, they'd think twice next time before they lie and cheat! 

Hi All,

A few posts and replies to them have been removed from this thread as they were in violation of our Community Guidelines and values. Please, be mindful of the Community Guidelines and respectful toward other users when posting.

~ Jo-An

Untitled

Sorry to hear you had a negative experience with a freelancer, Faith. Upwork offers various tools and information to help clients make hiring decisions, manage their contracts and communicate with freelancers. As a part of Fixed-Price Escrow Protection the funded amount is returned to the client if the freelancer cancels the contract without submitting the work. We also encourage users to share their experience working with each other when leaving feedback. Many clients also have shared that they choose to hire freelancers for a small paid test job to evaluate their skills and professionalism before hiring them for a bigger more serious project.

~ Jo-An

Untitled
282db5a3
Community Member

were you able to get a refund from the lost money?

petra_r
Community Member


@Charles D wrote:

were you able to get a refund from the lost money?


 As the money was or is still in Escrow it'll get back to her unless the freelancer disputes.

 

tta192
Community Member

When under time pressure, there's no room for error. You need to minimize the risk for when the freelancer doesn't deliver. Ignoring the probability of this happening is not helpful, as Upwork cannot control that - no one can.

The safest way to ensure the completion of the project is to start with multiple freelancers, even if you end up paying double or more.

Of course, this only applies if the project is important enough. (e.g., why do skydivers waste their money on a backup parachute ?...)

tlsanders
Community Member

Faith, I think the reason you are dissatisfied with the responses you're getting here is that many of us are sincerely confused as to what you think Upwork "allowed." 

 

Did you reach out to Upwork for help in contacting your freelancer when he disappeared and they refused?

 

Did you attempt to end the contract and have your funds returned while you still had time to hire another freelancer and encounter some type of obstacle?

 

You haven't related any step at which Upwork was involved, on notice, or should have been taking any particular action.

 

Short of hiring several hundred full-time staffers to personally oversee each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of contracts going on through Upwork, what do you think Upwork could or should have done to prevent this situation?

Latest Articles
Learning Paths